matt's pictures

shibuya crossing on a monday evening

Just moving between places in Tokyo. There’s so much happening there at any given instant. This was just another Monday evening, you know? but I guess someone else’s quotidian bullshit can be amazing and wild if you go halfway around the world. This crowd was a nice change from the Halloween night crowd, which was called a riot by the local police. (I for one don’t think it can be a riot without any broken windows, at least; this was just TOO MANY PEOPLE in one place)

Schedule is already filling up for the fall. Booking things two months out already. Two more weeks until I start physical therapy. I keep having dreams where I’m walking, and after a moment I look down and realize I’m still in the splint, or I shouldn’t really be putting weight on the busted ankle, but it seems fine in the dream. I hope reality is half as easy.

Posted on 2019-08-17T19:31:49Z GMT

drinks up high

So, I found the rest of the Tokyo pictures. Turns out a bunch of stuff that I’d already blogged was still in LR mobile, and for some reason I thought it was sorted wrong. So, yesterday’s post was actually from the end of the backlog, not that it matters here and now, 6 months after the fact.

These are, as far as I can remember, from getting drinks one night in the accidentally fancy hotel. Booking online sometimes works out in your favor, is all I’m saying. I think we were paying something like $125 a night? Nice room, came with a local cell phone even.

Posted on 2019-08-15T22:08:18Z GMT

back in Oakland after the trip

So these were from sometime after the trip. No idea why I was walking in this particular spot, or what I was doing that day. it’s a little weird.

I’m missing some photos, actually; the last post was on the last day, but there were some more from that evening that I meant to post. We walked, we saw the Samurai museum, we walked some more. They’re probably in a folder on my desktop machine. This is another experiment in mobile blogging, now from the iPad pro; the images were put together in LR mobile, and uploaded (somewhat painfully) over sftp. Hopefully this works.

Oh, also! I’ve started an email newsletter, at tinyletter.com/photomattmills. I’m going to be putting more longform writing there, telling stories, recent photo one-offs, that sort of thing.

Posted on 2019-08-14T21:17:18Z GMT

walking in tokyo again

Home stretch now… the blogging for the trip, which I’d wanted to do while in situ, has ended up taking the better part of 10 months. Life does not stop happening when you’re not on the road, unfortunately; there’s been a real lull the last 7 weeks or so around here. I injured my ankle may 31st, sort of several things compounding until I ended up at the orthopedist, diagnosed with an entirely torn tendon, and some kind of cartilage issue. Surgery is next week. My creative output hasn’t been nothing in that time; I’ve taken a lot of pictures, still, finished one bag three weeks late, did a pop-up photo booth in the style of Richard Avedon, designed another bag, and thought a lot about what I’m going to do when I have full use of my right leg again.

All things going well, I should be back at it 100% eight weeks from Friday. I should probably plan to hit a lot of the backlog while I have downtime; I have a new iPad to help me during my convalescence, and a selection of keyboards I could use to write with even. Maybe I will, but it’s almost 4 am on saturday morning. No promises.

Posted on 2019-07-27T10:34:09Z GMT

meiji shrine

I’ve been staring at this edit for hours, and really it’s time to just push it out and move on.

This is the Meiji Shrine, which is sort of a complex of imperial gardens and buildings. Much rich history. I was just sort of wandering through on my way to Shinjuku. Somewhat rainy, although the sun peeked out for a minute by the time I was reaching the southern end; I stopped at a little shop and had a coffee. Then I went on my way.